Outside the Israel Embassy, tears for the ‘martyr’ who set himself on fire there
Aaron Bushnell killed himself ‘to stir the conscience of this country,’ said one woman at a gathering outside the Israeli Embassy Monday
Protesters outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., at the site where Aaron Bushnell, a U.S. airman, self-immolated on Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024. Photo by Lauren Markoe
By Lauren Markoe February 26, 2024
The day after Aaron Bushnell, an active duty soldier in the U.S. Air Force, set himself on fire in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington D.C., hundreds gathered to pay their respects to him at the site of his fatal protest.
“We will honor all our martyrs,” the crowd chanted Monday afternoon during an event that was part political rally and part vigil. Some held lit candles. A few cried. Signs read “His Last Words — Free Palestine.” One speaker, inveighing against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, told the crowd not to vote for President Biden or former President Trump, but for a third party candidate.
Bushnell, who said “I will no longer be complicit in genocide,” moments before he doused himself with a flammable liquid, died from his wounds on Monday.
A man set a loudspeaker on the ground and blasted audio in which Bushnell explained that he was about to do something “extreme.” The audio, from a livestream of his suicide posted on social media, includes his screams of pain and cries of “Free Palestine.”
A funeral wreath and black balloons marked the spot where Bushnell, 25, self-immolated. It’s in front of the gate to the embassy’s driveway, one of the few sections not covered with pictures of hostages Hamas took from Israel on Oct. 7.
“It is so tragic that a 25-year-old man, such a young man, felt compelled to do this to stir the conscience of this country,” said Kesh Ladduwahetty, 60, a graphic designer who held a sign that read “Justice Burns Eternal.”
“I hope he did not die in vain,” she added, a tear falling down her cheek.
Several hundred people came to the event, many holding Palestinian flags. U.S. Secret Service and D.C. police officers blocked off the street and parked more than 20 squad cars and SUVs near the embassy’s entrance.
Samantha Bolte, 31, traveled from Arlington, Virginia, with her French bulldog, Günter, who wore a placard across his back that read “Good Boys Against Genocide” on one side and cursed the Israel Defense Forces on the other side.
Bushnell sent “a huge message” to the American people about the need to end the war in Gaza, said Bolte, who also condemned the murders committed by Hamas on Oct. 7 in Israel.
Asked if she worried that others might take inspiration from Bushnell and kill themselves in protest, she said “it’s a very scary thought,” and noted a Buddhist monk who self-immolated to protest the Vietnam War and the Tunisian man who did the same, setting off the Arab Spring.
“I hope we don’t see any more,” she added.
Gloria Strange, a massage therapist who held a sign that read “Free Hugs & Free Palestine” said, “I feel I will never do enough to support Palestine.”
She said she hugged about 10 people.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
